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Confused by fault reporting?

Friday, September 5th, 2014

There are various ways to contact IT if your PC is giving you a hard time. Most of you know you can contact the IT Service desk at 808 4367 to report a technical error, but you can also send an e-mail to help@sun.ac.za.

To successfully log a call, the Service Desk needs the following information:

1. A description of the problem
2. Phone number
3. Room number
4. Department and building
5. Asset number of the PC, laptop, printer, etc.

A request will automatically be logged in the IT request system and a reference number will be sent to you via e-mail. This reference number can be used if you need to make an inquiry about the status of your call.

If you’d like to check the status of your request, you can go to https://iheat.sun.ac.za/hss and log on with your username and password.

Click on the relevant CallID displayed on the list.

Status will indicate the progress of the request.

Solved and Closed statuses indicates that the request has been completed.*

Responded indicates an IT technician is aware of the request and has contacted the user by phone or e-mail.

Acknowledged indicates an IT technician is aware of the request, but the user hasn’t been contacted yet.

*If the technician has already contacted the user unsuccessfully three times, whether by phone or e-mail or if a call has been open for at least a week, it will be automatically closed. In this case an e-mail will be sent to notify the user.

Take note that a second e-mail, helpinfo@sun.ac.za can ONLY be used for general IT related inquiries. This e-mail address does not automatically log your call on the system and therefore, you’re not guaranteed your problem will receive the urgent attention you require. Rather send mail to help@sun.ac.za in this case.

IT can also be contacted via Skype (handle = ITStellenUni) for inquiries.

Inquiries such as “How do I apply for an IT service?”, “What are the purchasing procedures?”, etc. can be sent to helpinfo@sun.ac.za. Questions will be answered by e-mail.

Alternatively you can log your fault at https://iheat.sun.ac.za/webheat.

More information on the various options can be found on the IT wiki.

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Useful, free web apps you should know about

Friday, August 8th, 2014

As part of the expansion of the web, the last decade has seen the rise of thousands —if not millions —of web apps: often-simple tools that allow users to complete specific tasks via a web page from any computer connected to the internet.

The possibilities are almost endless: think of a task you need to complete and you can be nearly certain that there will be a useful web app that fits the job. The key, however, is to know where to look. And that’s where this guide comes in.

Below, you’ll find a list of a few tried-and-tested web apps that —if used correctly —can make your life much, much easier. Try them. Use them. Share them.

NOTE TAKING AND STUDY AIDS

Evernote: A very popular note management solution, allowing you to pull in notes from your tablet, computer, phone and elsewhere. The web app lets you create, edit, manage and search your notes library. www.evernote.com

Mindmap: An easy-to-use tool that lets you create your own mind maps quickly and efficiently. Great for summarising course notes, articles and books. www.mindmup.com

Gliffy and LucidChart: Both great apps for illustrating a concept with diagrams. Both include many useful shapes and tools. However, both have some limits on the free account. Still, they are great for occasional diagramming. www.gliffy.com and www.lucidchart.com

Google Drive Documents: Google’s web-based word processor. It’s perfect for summaries, essays and more and you and other people can type in the same document at the same time. This makes it perfect for team planning, agendas and taking minutes in a meeting. Google Drive Documents is part of — you guessed it — Google Drive, so you’ll need to create an account there. drive.google.com

Cram: A lightweight flashcard tool that lets you create your own flashcards (having one word/phrase on the front and one on the back) and then review them alphabetically or randomly. Very useful for any content for which you have to remember a key point for a specific concept, e.g. in learning a language. www.cram.com

PRESENTATIONS

Prezi: Tired of slideshows with sparkling text and way too many bullet points? Do your next presentation with Prezi. It’s a great way to illustrate how your ideas fit into one another because all your content is displayed on a single canvas, with the ‘view’ simply panning and zooming from one area to another. www.prezi.com

Google Drive Presentations: If you prefer a more traditional ‘slideshow’, or if Prezi isn’t suitable for communicating your message, you can use Google’s PowerPoint alternative for free. While it’s not as feature-packed as PowerPoint, it’s still a great way to do presentations if you don’t want to dish out money for the aforementioned duo. drive.google.com

 RESEARCH

Google Scholar: This app brings the power of Google search to research. By letting you search thousands of academic databases (including those used by EBSCOHost, JSTOR, etc.) quickly and easily, it cuts down the time necessary to find the articles you need for projects, essays and theses. As a bonus, it also lets you import article metadata into a citation manager (see Zotero below) directly from the search results page. When accessing Google Scholar from outside the Stellenbosch University, use scholar.google.com.ez.sun.ac.za to get access to the journals to which the university subscribes. Otherwise: scholar.google.com

[Special mention] Zotero: While Zotero isn’t strictly speaking a web app (although it also runs in your browser), it’s just too good and relevant not to include here. For a full Zotero guide, check out the previous article  in this series.

ORGANISATION AND COMMUNICATION

Google Calendar: This app is the gold standard in free calendar tools. It helps you keep track of your appointments, events, deadlines and general planning — all while still being very easy to use. It can also keep in sync with all your devices, so that you can have access to your calendar on your tablet, phone and computer. calendar.google.com

Gmail: This e-mail service has ever-expanding storage space and great search functionality. Gmail is different from Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Mail and other services, in that it uses ‘labels’ instead of traditional folders. You can tag any e-mail with one or more labels and subsequently search by that label. Also, because you have such a large amount of space (15 GB as of early 2014), you never have to delete e-mails and lose them forever. Consequently, because you have access to all e-mails you ever sent or received, Gmail includes powerful searching capabilities (think: Google for your inbox) that allow you to delve into your tons and tons of messages effortlessly. www.gmail.com

Wunderlist: task management made easy — and beautiful. Keep track of your daily to-do list, priorities, shopping list and more. You can also share task lists with friends — a great tool for group projects. www.wunderlist.com

FILE SHARING

Google Drive: Install Google Drive on your computer and then simply drop a file in the assigned folder to upload it. Once uploaded, you can share files with friends. Google Drive has a range of web-based editors that are included by default —two of which were previously mentioned —that make collaboration easy. You can also share specific folders in your Drive with your friends, which works really well to keep all the files for a group project stored in one place. drive.google.com

Dropbox: simple and easy file sharing. While it works in the same way as Google Drive, it doesn’t include the online editors built into the latter. However, Dropbox remains one of the simplest ways to share files between devices and people. Dropbox is particularly useful when you need to send a large file via e-mail and don’t want to clog up the recipient’s mail storage: simply upload the file to your Dropbox and then share the link in an e-mail. www.dropbox.com

[ARTICLE BY JOHANNES JONKER]

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Posted in Apps, Communication, Research | Comments Off on Useful, free web apps you should know about

Snap and shop!

Friday, August 8th, 2014

snapscan3Have you ever wondered what the cryptic image (see right) at some restaurants, coffee shops and markets is? Here’s a hint – it’s not some secret code of a society you don’t belong to. On the contrary, it’s something useful guaranteed to make your life somewhat easier.

SnapScan is a smartphone payment app developed right here in Stellenbosch by technology start-up company FireID, located in Tegnopark – Stellenbosch’s own Silicon Valley. The guys from FireID realised that a cashless society, where payments were easier and faster to make, is became a necessity.

In 2013 SnapScan won the South African App of the year and it has been featured on Business Insider’s Top 12 African Start-ups list. In May of this year it joined in partnership with Standard Bank.

SnapScan benefits both the customer and the merchant. For the customer it provides an alternative for cash and credit cards, it’s faster and is meant to be more secure.

You no longer have to wait to have a payment processed at a terminal or risk carrying a credit card with you. You simply take a picture of the merchant’s unique QR code (the cryptic image) with your phone, enter your pin and the amount you want to pay. After the transaction is completed the customer and merchant receives an SMS notification to confirm.

The merchant never handles your credit card or details. Your card details are stored securely on your phone, encrypted and protected by a pin you select yourself.

It doesn’t cost you anything, no sign-up fee, setup, installation or monthly fee. All you need to do is download the app from the Apple or Google Play store, fill in your card details and you’re good to go. The app is available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

For merchants the application is easy and fast. All they need is a cell phone and they can process payments, whether it’s a coffee shop or an informal trader at a market. The Big Issue, the non-profit magazine sold at intersections, vendors have recently been enabled to use SnapScan.

Not too bad for something starting out only in a number of stores around in Stellenbosch – from 600 merchants at the end of 2013 to 12 000 at present. So what are you waiting for? Start snapping!

More info on SnapScan: 

https://www.facebook.com/SnapScanApp
http://www.getsnapscan.com/

[SOURCES: http://mybroadband.co.za, http://www.techcentral.co.za, http://www.2oceansvibe.com, http://ventureburn.com]

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Digital calendars: handy helpers

Friday, July 25th, 2014

We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling sometime or another: when you realise the big interview you thought was tomorrow is actually today. Or when you have to cancel going out with your best friend because you forgot you had to be somewhere else. Or when you get a call from someone important asking why you didn’t show up for your meeting with them.

The fact of modern life is this: it’s busy. There’s a lot to keep track of:  meetings, birthdays, events and, of course, your social life, to name but a few. To try to remember all of this is a waste of mental energy – energy that you could have put to better use.

Using a paper planner is a step forward, in the sense that you don’t have to remember everything. But really, keeping track of your life can be better, easier and more fun. And that’s precisely where a digital calendar comes into the picture.

WHY USE A DIGITAL CALENDAR?

A digital calendar:

  1. Let’s you easily create events (including repeating ones) and move them around – much better than having to cross out or erase in a paper planner;
  2. Can present your schedule to you in different formats, e.g. as a list of upcoming events, a day view, week view, month view, etc. – useful in different situations;
  3. Let’s you set reminders for important events;
  4. Let’s you store additional information with an event, e.g. where it takes place, as well as a description; and
  5. Let’s you search your events – extremely handy in the rare cases when you need it.

As an added extra, a digital calendar doubles as a diary of sorts: you’ll easily be able to navigate back in time to see what you did at a specific point in the past.

THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

There are a number of digital calendar tools available today, some as software that you install on your computer (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) and some as “cloud” calendars (i.e. where your data is securely stored online). While you can experiment with what works for you, Google Calendar – a free, cloud-based calendar – is bound to be a good choice, because it’s simple to use and easily synced with multiple devices (e.g. your phone, tablet and computer).

Google Calendar (Free)

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll get a blank calendar, ready for you to start adding events. You’ll be able to access your calendar from any computer with an internet connection by entering the above address in your web browser. If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can easily set it up to synchronise events with your Google Calendar, so you will have your schedule with you (and can add new events) wherever you go. Reading the welcoming page will get you up and running with all this and more in no time.

THE GOLDEN RULE

When it comes to entering events, it’s all or nothing.

To get the most out of your digital calendar you’ll need to commit to adding everything you want to keep track of. No more “I don’t need to add that meeting; I’m sure I’ll remember it”. If you can’t look at your calendar and trust that it’s really giving you a complete picture of your schedule, it’s really of no use.

What this means in practical terms:

  1. Whenever someone wants to schedule something with you, take a look at your calendar first. The initial comments from your friends will stop as soon as they see how much easier it makes your life.
  2. Once you have a date or time for an activity, create a new event immediately, so as to prevent forgetting to add it later. For example, the moment you hear about a test in class, you and your friend decide on a coffee date or you see a notice of your favourite band performing in Aandklas or Bohemia, quickly jot it down in your calendar.

The easiest way to accomplish both of the above is to have your calendar set up on your phone or tablet (see the previous section). While the above may sound like a cumbersome habit, you’ll get used to it very quickly. And from what you’re going to gain from it, it’s totally worth it.

OTHER HELPFUL TIPS AND TRICKS

By simply taking a look at your calendar before scheduling events and entering new ones the moment you hear about them, you’ll already be able to get a better grip on the practicalities of your daily life. To get even more from your calendar, use these pointers:

  • Create sub-calendars for different facets of your life (e.g. “Tests and exams”, “Classes and tuts”, “Projects” and “Personal and social”);
  • Add repeating events for your classes;
  • Use event descriptions to add handy information (e.g. the scope of a test or the topic of a meeting);
  • Add “TBC” (To be confirmed) or “TBD” (To be decided) after event titles to keep track of events of which the time is tentative (e.g. “John’s braai TBC”), or of events that you haven’t decided whether or not you want to go. This prevents you from accidentally scheduling events in those time slots because you didn’t see that there already was a chance of something else going on.
  • Create a daily to-do list on your calendar by adding all-day events with “[ ]” in front of the title (e.g. “[ ] Buy groceries”). Once you’ve completed the task, ‘tick’ the box by changing the text to “[X]” (e.g. “[X] Buy groceries”). It’s a simple trick, but very powerful.
A LAST NOTE

While using a digital calendar will certainly add value to your life, there’s perhaps one last, more general principle you need to bear in mind: don’t over-organise. Leave room for the unexpected, spontaneous and serendipitous; don’t be a calendar fundamentalist (“if it’s not on my calendar, it’s not happening”). At the same time, don’t lose your reins on life and allow it to run away with you. After all, a calendar is there to help simplify your life. And, if you use it well, it certainly will.

[ARTICLE BY JOHANNES JONKER]

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Apps to feed the soccer addiction

Friday, June 27th, 2014

If you still don’t know there’s a World Cup soccer tournament running in Brazil, I suspect you’re hibernating somewhere on the outskirts of Mongolia.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is the 20th FIFA World Cup tournament and (obviously!) an international tournament for men’s soccer. This year the tournament kicked off on 12 June with a group phase and it will come to an end on 13 July when the final will be played.

It’s the second time Brazil hosts this spectacular event – the first was way back in 1950. It’s also the first time since 1978, when it was held in Argentina, that it’s held in South America.

The national teams of 31 countries qualified for this year’s World Cup. Unfortunately South Africa isn’t one of them, so you’ll have to pick another team. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 cities across Brazil.

If you’ve been bitten by the soccer bug, you’ll know how important it is to keep up to date of all the latest news and match information. With the help of www.techradar.com we selected ten handy (and free!) apps to ensure you don’t suffer from soccer FOMO.

1 Official FIFA application

Price: Free
Available at:  App Store | Google Play

FIFA’s official application not only covers the World Cup, but all soccer events worldwide. This app gives you access to match schedules, but also cool extra information like team profiles. You can even choose your favourite team and keep tabs on their progress.

2 ESPN FC Soccer & World Cup

Price: Free
Available at: App Store | Google Play

Another app addressing all soccer events – ideal for avid soccer supporters. In addition to the standard information, it also supplies videos and analysis of matches.

3 World Soccer Finals

Price: Free
Available at:  App Store | Google Play

A perfect solution for the obsessive soccer enthusiast with loads of information, including yellow and red card and player information. It can also send notifications directly to your phone.

 4 World Cup 2014 Brazil

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

This Android app will be your choice if you’re a closet statistician. It also has information on referees, historical comparisons and news on future World Cups.

5 2014 Table

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

The name says exactly what this app does. It displays results in an easy table format and is perfect for accessing information quickly.

6 LiveSoccer World Football Cup

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

Watch live matches with customisable alerts of results as they happen. The app has an extensive interface, but still remains user friendly.

7 Sofascore

Price: Free
Available at: Windows Phone App Store

Ideal for a Windows phone with live updates.

8 Squawka

Price: Free
Available at: App Store

Another app for the soccer fan who likes to get his facts straight.  Squawka gives you all the statistics to back up an argument when you need to.

9 TeamStream

Price: Free
Available at: App Store

TeamStream is a news and information service by The Bleacher Report which collects any relevant soccer news from across the world.

10 BBC Sport

Price: Free
Available at: App Store | Google Play

The BBC Sport app gives live text commentary on all the matches and access to Radio 5 bulletins.

If you have a lot of data at your disposal, you might want to consider the Live Soccer TV App.

So, now you have no excuse to miss out on this huge event. The only problem is finding a team to back …

 

[SOURCES: www.techradar.com & www.wikipedia.com]

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